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In memory of:

Lance Sergeant Armand Deschesnes

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Military service

Service number: E/4401
Age: 22
Rank: Lance Sergeant
Force: Army
Unit/Regiment: Royal 22nd Regiment, R.C.I.C.
Birth: November 28, 1921 St-Clément de Tourville, L’Islet
Enlistment: October 24, 1939
Death: December 15, 1943 Near Fossacesia, Italy

Burial/memorial information

Grave reference: V. F. 13.
Additional information
Baptized Joseph Benoit Armand Miville dit Deschênes. Son of Pierre Léon Miville dit Deschênes and Marie Anne Beauchesne from Montréal, Québec.

Enlisted as a Boy Soldier due to his young age, he was sent to the Royal 22e Régiment depot on November 28, 1939, where he remained until May 20, 1941. On December 11, 1942, he embarked for Great Britain, where he arrived on the 18th. On June 15, 1943, he set sail again to take part in the Allied landing in Sicily, Operation Husky, which took place on July 10. On September 3, 1943, he landed on the Italian mainland. On December 14, he was shot in the abdomen during an assault to capture the crossroads northeast of La Casa Berardi, Italy. He died the next day, on the 15th, at 8:30 p.m. at the 1st Canadian Field Dispensary Station. He was first buried in Fossacesia, then exhumed and reburied in the Moro River Cemetery. He had served 1,514 days, including 369 overseas.

In the Books of Remembrance

Commemorated on:

Page 153 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance.
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MORO RIVER CANADIAN WAR CEMETERY Italy

By the winter of 1943, the German armies in Italy were defending a line stretching from the Tyrrhenian Sea north of Naples, to the Adriatic Sea south of Ortona. The Allies prepared to break through this line to capture Rome. For its part, the 1st Canadian Infantry Division was to cross the Moro River and take Ortona. In January 1944 the Canadian Corps selected this site, intending that it would contain the graves of those who died during the Ortona battle and in the fighting in the weeks before and after it. Today, there are 1,615 graves in the cemetery, of which over 50 are unidentified and 1,375 are Canadian.

The Moro River Canadian War Cemetery lies in the locality of San Donato in the Commune of Ortona, Province of Chieti, and is sited on high ground near the sea just east of the main Adriatic coast road (SS16). The cemetery can be reached from Rome on the autostrada A25 (Rome-Pescara) by branching on the autostrada A14 and leaving it at Ortona. The approach road to the cemetery from the main road passes under an arch forming part of the little church of San Donato. The cemetery is permanently open and may be visited anytime.

For more information, visit Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

 

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